Birthday Celebration

 We never had our celebration for Austin's birthday with his friends in June. Before school got out, life was pretty busy. I told him we'd just plan on having a party sometime this summer. 

Well, the day finally arrived to celebrate his 13th birthday. It is tricky having a party in the summer when a lot of people are out-of-town. It was also tricky with the venue we chose- Turtle Cove. It had recently reopened and has a cap on how many people can be in this little water park. My original plan was to do the Twilight Swim, but I worried if people were already in the park and stayed, we wouldn't be able to get in if they were close to the maximum number of people allowed in. So I opted for when they open at noon. 

Luckily, Austin's best buds were the ones who could make it to the party and luckily the smaller number allowed us to ride in only one car for the 25-minute drive. His friends came to our house at 11 am and I fed them brunch which included French toast, sausage, bacon, orange juice, and strawberries. Feeding four 13-year-old teenage boys isn't too bad, yet! 

Brunch!

We got there at 12:15 and had to wait almost an hour to get in, something I wasn't expecting, but it went quickly and the boys had fun while waiting. I later discovered that the first person in line arrived at 11 and waited an hour to get in. So I should always expect to wait around an hour to get into Turtle Cove. 

Unlike what some of their faces show, including Austin, they're very excited to get in. Austin often likes to make weird faces in pics- luckily, this one wasn't bad!

There's a lazy river in the back around that yellow water umbrella.

Ready to go down the big slide!

The boys had a great time and it went by so quickly! I had brought in water and granola bars, which they ended up consuming on the way home rather than taking a break at the park.

The original plan was to bbq hamburgers when we returned, but I didn't account for the long wait at the beginning, so Jason ordered pizza that arrived a little bit after when returned. Again, those 13-year-olds didn't let me down and ate a fair amount of pizza!

Kai made the cake, as usual, and his friends all gave him gift cards, which seems to be the thing to do for tween and teen boys. 

I made him smile normally!

A real smile here with gift cards!

My boys were exhausted the rest of the evening! It was a fun celebration!

Summertime!

 We've got a good groove going on for the summer.  Most days I watch Jacob, our 5-year-old friend from church who really loves Erik. His presence has brought a more playful environment to our home than would have otherwise been the case since I have 3 teens in the house now. Erik still loves to play with toys, so this allows him a chance to do that. Even Austin will join in because Jacob is so fun and easy to play with.  Sometimes Erik gets annoyed with him always following him around,  but I make sure to change up our activities as well as set up times with friends that are his age. I don't get paid much,  which is not why I do it, but I use the payment for fun things for my kids, like going to the movies and buying treats,  so they're rewarded for their efforts,  since they're the ones doing the work, especially Erik!

Library kick-off for the summer!

Lots of creations with manga tiles.

Water balloon toss.

Our neighbor gave us this awesome top game she found at her late brother's home. It was made in 1969 and is unbelievably fun!

Hiking with friends.

Playground fun!

More ways to use Magna tiles!

Breaking out old toys!

Jacob's first time at the zoo!

Knife throwing!

Free Menchies!!

Kai's been busy with work, color guard, and physical therapy.  She injured her knee last summer in color guard.  It's been bothering her since.  We finally were referred to the physical therapist. It's busy,  hard, and expensive! She also enjoyed time with us at Proud Lake 10 days ago, which are the pictures below.

Paddleboarding

Swimming at the dam.

A turtle while kayaking!

Victoria got to go to EFY in Payson, Ut. It was an adventure version with ziplining, hiking, swimming,  and mountain biking. She's still in Utah and has a week to visit with friends and family until next week when she goes to Cougarette camp. She also got to go to the temple with a great group of kids!

She fit 10 outfits in here, plus 2 church dresses, 3 pairs of shoes, and her sports underwear/bras, and socks! Luckily she had room in her small backpack for her toiletries!

The whole EFY group. Don't know why this is so small....

She became Vicki the Hippie there!

July 4th

Often we are traveling over the 4th and were supposed to have gone on a big vacation this summer, but since it didn't work out, we wanted to have a memorable time here at home.

We found a few other families in our ward who didn't have plans nor family in the area to spend the day with, so we made plans with them (one family isn't in our ward anymore,  but is Kai's very good friend CJ).

Knowing the need our teens and tweens have of sleeping in,  we planned to leave at noon to go to Island Lake.  Everyone ate something just before,  or on the way, so we could play in the water and with the football for a few hours before eating our big meal. 

We had our paddleboard, inner tubes, and big blow up dragon Peggy for the kids to play with. They made sandcastles and played catch as well. The adults had good conversation in between watching kids, going on the paddleboard, and prepping food. 

Before long it was time to eat. Everyone brought their own things to grill,  but Jason grilled it all. Everyone brought things to share as well: chips, drinks, water,  baked beans, macaroni salad,  Greek salad, condiments, and a patriotic cake. It was tasty and filling and allowed for more play time afterwards. 

We packed up around 6 to get cleaned up and ready for fireworks. The Remingtons brought a bunch of fireworks that they are knowledgeable about and met us in our cul-de-sac for a great show! The kids got to do some of them and enjoyed watching Kara work her fire magic.  We got to enjoy the neighbor's huge fireworks as well.  That's a nice thing about Michigan- it's not too dry to do your own fireworks! 

Happy Independence day!